OVER A BEER BARREL
Rachel Reeves’s maiden budget will hit small, independent businesses the hardest and hospitality once more will suffer more than any other sector, with minimum wage and National Insurance hikes set to send costs skyrocketing atop all other growing expenses.
Hospitality has been on the back foot for the best part of four years now, with setback after setback and a whole host of social and political disasters. No sector was hit as hard by Covid as our beloved pubs, restaurants and hotels, the impact that the rise of energy rates has had across the board is incalculable, and few sectors were so battered by 2022’s disastrous mini-budget and the subsequent hikes in mortgage and rent prices.
The number of small, independent businesses we have lost and are going to lose is heartbreaking; both as someone with one foot in the hospitality industry, and perhaps even more so just as a punter. I really don’t understand people to whom food and dining is just an arbitrary event. While food is of course an everyday need for us, it is often so much more than that. Entire cultures, societies and social occasions have been built around food, the history of so many nations can’t be discussed without food being part of the conversation. And now in modernity, it has shaped our high streets, our towns and cities, and kept alive our rural tourism.
This is why the hospitality industry is the third largest employer in the UK, and why it contributes tens of billions of pounds to the UK economy. It employs a lot of casual staff picking up stopgap work alongside full-time education; but like no other industry, there are dedicated career people who bleed hospitality, and this is why the issue is so important and why recent events leave us on a precipice.
The minimum wage hike and National Insurance contributions announced in the October budget is going to hit most those already fighting tooth and nail to keep alive their dream and their livelihood: their bread and butter. The owners of small independent businesses in hospitality are now, for want of a better phrase, over a barrel. The cost of having a full staff roster is going to significantly increase, no matter who they employ. So, there are two options: stop recruitment, cut operating hours and cut staff; or keep the staff and increase prices – significantly, passing the burden on to the customer.
The former seems like the easiest, most straightforward option for employers; cut their costs in the first instance, increasing the burden on the remaining employees and undermining their ability to ensure the level of service they are used to providing.
The latter, to my mind, creates a depressing, vicious cycle: increase prices > customer’s money doesn’t go as far > less custom > decreased revenue > cuts mentioned above! The problem that small business owners in this industry now face is remarkable, and even more remarkable is how they have been so overlooked when they make up such an important part of our economy; both on a local and national scale.
Recruiting staff can be time consuming and frustrating, but it can be costly going through recruiters. That’s why we will try and help wherever we can; whether it’s looking at reduced fees, payment plans or increased cover for peace of mind. It’s been a turbulent 5 or so years as it is.
The dismay and havoc of the lockdowns was displaced by resilience and resurgence throughout hospitality as the industry re-emerged from the flames. Then bills started to creep up once more, and now the increased burden of the minimum wage and NI increases have once more put the entire industry on the back foot, and we want to do what we can to help.
We have friends up and down the UK for whom we want to do whatever we can to help in this difficult time. It will be the same service, the same knowledge, the same hard work; but we want to see where we can save you money and time in the often costly and tedious business of finding great staff members; after all it’s what we do.